With all of the important issues facing Maine folks, we couldn’t help but be a little disgusted when we learned recently that the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee voted unanimously to study the adverse effects of the lottery on Maine’s poor. It couldn’t have come as any surprise to find that the residents of some of the state’s poorer counties spend more money on lottery tickets than others, sometimes as much as 200 percent more.

Some legislators are now concerned that marketing of the lottery, or we should say, the multiple lottery offerings in the state, probably encourages lower income individuals to buy tickets, along with everyone else. Guess what? With no marketing whatsoever, those with smaller household incomes are the most likely to buy the tickets, even though initial studies show (again, a big surprise) that many of these ticket buyers can ill afford it and should be spending the money on necessities such as heat, electricity, clothing, gas, etc. instead.

It doesn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer to figure out that low income people can use winnings, no matter how big or small, to give them a little financial boost. They’re much more apt to be more optimistic when they fork over the money for a lottery ticket than is the person who doesn’t have to worry about meeting next month’s (or even tomorrow’s) financial obligations. For many, buying a lottery ticket is a form of entertainment, nothing more, nothing less.

The pros and cons of a Maine lottery were heavily debated back in 1973 and at that time, many opponents pointed out that a lottery by nature attracts those who can ill afford it. Be that as it may, the Maine legislature approved it (the House by a wide margin, the Senate by only three votes) and when it went to referendum, Maine voters said yes by 63 percent.

Governor LePage summed up his opinion of the study quite nicely, we thought, by pointing out that the horse is already out of the barn, adding that he wouldn’t have been in favor of the lottery in the first place.

Those who feel the lottery unfairly targets low income families apparently haven’t watched many horse races here in Maine. If there was a way to determine how many bets are placed by those who really can’t afford it, you’d find it’s right up there with lottery ticket buying. The same is true of the sale of raffle tickets.

You can’t legislate a person’s choices when it comes to how they spend their money, nor be naïve enough to think you can limit ticket purchases only to those who can afford it. Truthfully, many of those with relatively high incomes can’t afford it, either.  Maine will never get rich off the number of tickets we buy during the course of a year, but we’re objective enough to know that Maine rakes in some $50 million from ticket sales, which helps fund some of our state’s programs. Study or not, we don’t believe the state is willing to give up the money, do you?